The term “Administrator” means the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The term “battery” means an electrochemical energy storage system powered directly by electrical current.
The Secretary shall establish a competitive program to provide grants on a cost-shared basis to State governments, local governments, metropolitan transportation authorities, air pollution control districts, private or nonprofit entities, or combinations of those governments, authorities, districts, and entities, to carry out one or more projects to encourage the use of plug-in electric drive vehicles or other emerging electric vehicle technologies, as determined by the Secretary.
The Secretary shall, in consultation with the Secretary of Transportation and the Administrator, establish requirements for applications for grants under this section, including reporting of data to be summarized for dissemination to grantees and the public, including safety, vehicle, and component performance, and vehicle and component life cycle costs.
There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this subsection $90,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012, of which not less than ⅓ of the total amount appropriated shall be available each fiscal year to make grants to local and municipal governments.
Not later than 1 year after December 19, 2007, the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of Transportation and the Administrator, shall establish a program to provide grants for the conduct of qualified electric transportation projects.
In providing grants under this subsection, the Secretary shall give priority to large-scale projects and large-scale aggregators of projects.
The program established under paragraph (1) shall include a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle competition for institutions of higher education, which shall be known as the “Dr. Andrew Frank Plug-In Electric Vehicle Competition”.